Romania's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MADR) will continue to support the efforts of the Moldovan Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry to develop domestic agriculture, starting from the experience acquired by Romania in its European course, MADR Secretary of State Violeta Musat said during a meeting on Wednesday with Republic of Moldova's ambassador in Bucharest Victor Chirila, and with members of the neighboring country's Herbafruct and Bacii Sudului sector clusters.
According to a MADR release, the meeting took place on the occasion of a documentation visit undertaken between October 21 and 25 by Herbafruct and Bacii Sudului cluster members to the Romanian counties of Iasi and Brasov, to peer organizations and companies in the sectors of medicinal and aromatic plants, and livestock breeding, respectively, told Agerpres.
In her opening speech, Secretary of State Violeta Musat praised the two ministries' very good cooperation at all levels in the field of agriculture, rural development and the food industry, stressing also that the two countries are in direct and constant dialogue at expert level on topics of common interest.
In his turn, Moldovan ambassador Victor Chirila welcomed the solid bilateral cooperation between the two states and conveyed the interest of the clusters' representatives to connect with industry associations in Romania in order to identify solutions to expand to the Romanian market, develop sustainable partnerships and exchange best practices.
The heads of the MADR specialized departments offered useful and relevant information and recommendations regarding the activity sectors under their management, sharing their experience in ensuring the implementation of EU legislation for the development of a sustainable and resilient agri-food sector, in accordance with European requirements and standards.
"Violeta Musat expressed her full willingness to share Romania's experience with the colleagues from the Republic of Moldova as regards the development of policies through consultation with the private sector, institutional organization, implementation of standards, and voiced firm support for scaling up dialogue at EU level in the process of the Republic of Moldova's EU accession. In conclusion, it was agreed that the specific requests of the cluster representatives shall be centralized by the Moldovan Embassy and then forwarded to the MADR for resolution," the release states.
The Herbafruct micro-cluster was developed under the project "Resilient and inclusive markets in Moldova", financed by the Swiss government and implemented by the United Nations Development Program, and aims to revitalize and relaunch the medicinal and aromatic plants sector in the country.
Bacii Sudului is a livestock breeding cluster in the Cahul region, that set itself as a mission boosting the sustainable development of the livestock sector by enhancing competitiveness and promoting local products on both the national and international markets.